Interprofessional Ethics: A Developing Field? Notes from the Ethics & Social Welfare Conference, Sheffield, UK, May 2010

Abstract

This article discusses the nature of interprofessional ethics and some of the ethical issues and challenges that arise when practitioners from different professions work closely together in the fields of health and social care. The article draws on materials from a conference on this theme, covering issues of confidentiality and information sharing in practice and research with vulnerable people; challenges for teaching and learning about ethics in interprofessional settings; the potential of virtue ethics and an ethic of care for understanding and handling ethical issues in interprofessional practice; and the extent to which interprofessional working may be about surveillance and control. It concludes that the need to understand and handle ethical issues in interprofessional working is contributing to the revitalisation of professional ethics as a dynamic field of study.

Keywords:

• Interprofessional Ethics
• Health Care
• Social Care
• Virtue Ethics
• Ethic of Care
• Professions
• Interprofessional Education

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to all the conference speakers who supplied material for use in this article and to the conference participants for their lively and stimulating discussion. This article is a joint effort, although Sarah Banks takes full responsibility for any errors or misrepresentations. Thanks are also due to Pete Nelson, Claire Eggleston and Paula Brennan for help in organising the conference; to the journal editorial board members Chris Beckett, Beverley Burke, Gideon Calder, Andrew Maynard and Joan Orme for support and assistance during the event; and to Derek Clifford and Michael Preston-Shoot for helpful comments on a first draft of this article. Above all, we are grateful to Hilary Pengelly, who played a major role in the original design of the programme and without whom the event would not have happened.

Notes

1. This paper was written by Sarah Banks (Durham University, UK), drawing on contributions, which are individually credited in the text, from: Peter Allmark, Malcolm Cowburn, Rosemary Furey, Janet Kay, Alex McClimens, Pete Nelson, Charlotte Nutting, Chris Sampson and Angela Tod (Sheffield Hallam University, UK); Marian Barnes (University of Brighton, UK); Hugh Barr (University of Westminster, UK); Laurie Bryant (National Service User Advisor, Department of Health, England); Suki Desai (University of Gloucester, UK); David Stanley (Northumbria University, UK); Imogen Taylor (University of Sussex, UK); Andrew Thompson (University of Sheffield) and Nicki Ward (University of Birmingham). Some of the conference presentations can be found on the journal website under ‘News and Offers’: <www.tandf.co.uk/journals/RESW>.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Banks

Sarah Banks is Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, UK and co-editor of the journal Ethics & Social Welfare